Texas Humane Heroes: Play Group Training Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

The grant award was used to send our team member, Taylor, to the Dogs Playing for Life Mentorship Program at Austin Pets Alive! in April.

This grant helped our adoption team gain confidence in its ability to safely conduct playgroups, greatly benefiting our adoptable dogs. Taylor learned a great deal about dog behavior, play styles and confidently running playgroups. She enjoyed seeing many dogs relax and show their personalities by being around other dogs. Taylor and the group worked on fancy footwork as well as dog assessments. One of the most important pieces of knowledge for her was to learn not to micromanage the different ways that dogs communicate with each other.

How many pets did this grant help?

Texas Humane Heroes adopts about 1,500 to 1,800 dogs per year (1,000 of them are adults), and the goal is to help them all. Taylor has already begun implementing more playgroups in smaller numbers, and she's working on growing daily.

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Blue (first photo) and Bob are two dogs whom Taylor recently paired together in a playgroup. Bob is a young pup whose sister was adopted, leaving him lonely and scared. Taylor paired him with Blue in a playgroup to open up his personality, but also to teach him good manners. A few days after Taylor started working with these two great dogs, Bob found his home (second photo)! Blue is still patiently waiting and being paired with different dogs to help them through their time in the shelter environment. Meet Blue: www.petfinder.com/petdetail/41343769